


Waking

by nookiepoweredamazon



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Bath, Caretaking, F/F, Tenderness, Werewolf, and
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-04
Updated: 2017-05-04
Packaged: 2018-10-28 02:50:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 703
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10822185
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nookiepoweredamazon/pseuds/nookiepoweredamazon
Summary: Ruby stood in the doorway, looking half human and perfectly wild. Her eyes were still alight with wolf’s gold, her teeth unnaturally sharp. Leaves twined into her hair and mud was streaked dark over her pale cream body. Her eyes were glassy and unfocused, her back bowed as if walking on two legs still felt unnatural; as though she couldn’t bear, even then, to have her heart so far from the earth.





	Waking

**Author's Note:**

  * For [thegirl20](https://archiveofourown.org/users/thegirl20/gifts).



> Prompted by [thegirl20](http://thegirl20.tumblr.com), who asked for red queen - clean. <3

Regina perched on the edge of her porcelain tub, her feet still bare and face scrubbed clean in the early morning light, dressed in a crisp button-up that brushed the top of her naked thighs. She watched the full moon vanish and the sun sprawl, lazy and unhurried, over the horizon through her bathroom window.  
  
Heavy footfalls sounded on the staircase and she was already picturing the mud on her stairs, pawprints at the bottom and footprints at the top. Regina would chase the mess away with a wave of her hand and a rush of magic, send the prints scattering like shadows fleeing the light.  
  
Floorboards creaked behind her. “There you are,” she murmured to the towering figure.  
  
Ruby stood in the doorway, looking half human and perfectly wild. Her eyes were still alight with wolf’s gold, her teeth unnaturally sharp. Leaves twined into her hair and mud was streaked dark over her pale cream body. Her eyes were glassy and unfocused, her back bowed as if walking on two legs still felt unnatural; as though she couldn’t bear, even then, to have her heart so far from the earth.  
  
Regina reached out a hand to her and said, gently, “Come here.”  
  
Ruby allowed herself to be guided into the tub, Regina’s hands smoothing over her arms, her shoulders, her cheeks. She eased Ruby’s muscled back to rest against the side of the porcelain tub and pet the dirty hair out of her inhumanly bright eyes.  
  
When Regina leaned close Ruby breathed deep, inhaling her scent, but when she pulled back Ruby stared silently out the window with raw longing written across her features, still a wolf in the body of a girl.  
  
“The moon will be back next month, my love,” Regina murmured, bending to place a soft kiss on an unresponsive Ruby’s forehead. “And the month after that, and the month after that...”  
  
She turned the water on, warm and clear, and ran it over Ruby until the mud and leaves streamed down the drain. She scrubbed until she could count every faint freckle and run her fingers through that red streak of hair, visible again from beneath the thick coat of earth. She dragged her nails softly over Ruby’s scalp long after the shampoo had been washed away, soothing her out of her trance.  
  
Slowly the tension drained from Ruby’s muscles, the superhuman glow faded from her eyes, and then suddenly she was looking at Regina as if for the first time. As though she hadn’t seen her in a very long time.  
  
“Hi,” Ruby rasped. Her voice was low and ragged, not quite returned from the forest, but her lips had begun to smile.  
  
“Good morning, dear.” Regina melted into Ruby’s soft, short kiss, then pulled back, wrinkling her nose with a thought. “I do hope you didn’t eat anyone last night.”  
  
Ruby’s long, lanky form flopped back with a small splash. She grinned sheepishly. “Just a few rabbits.”  
  
“Ungh. Brush your teeth,” Regina huffed, looking nothing but fond as she cupped Ruby’s cheek. “You animal.”  
  
Ruby grinned and stood in the tub, shaking off like a dog and letting the lingering water run down her clean, muscular body. There were thin scars around the faint cross hatching of her abdominal muscles, fresh scrapes across her strong shoulders and at the curve of her hip. There was something predatory in the slant of her smile as she looked down at her girlfriend and growled, “You love it.”  
  
Regina swallowed, dragging her eyes over Ruby. She’d long since gained the foresight to take the day after the full moon off, knowing full well the depth of her beloved’s other appetites. Ruby’s cocky grin and shameless pose, legs cast wide and chest puffed out, was doing nothing to calm the heat moving down her spine.  
  
“Indeed I do,” Regina said coolly. “Now.” She stood, scowling half-heartedly at Ruby emerging to drip all over the tile. “Brush your teeth, clean up the floor, and don’t you dare rip my sheets in two again.”  
  
Ruby shrugged and popped a toothbrush into her mouth, her eyes light and green and familiar again as she watched Regina fold her arms threateningly.  
  
“No promises, babe.”  


**Author's Note:**

> Beta’d by [midnightbokeh](http://midnightbokeh.tumblr.com/)! Xoxo.


End file.
